Frictional-draft gear for railroad cars



A. C. MATHER.

FRICTIONAL DRAFT GEAR FOR RAILROAD CARS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. I9, 1921.

Patented Aug. 29, 1922,

3 w i Q V w NJ :6 m. S M QQ VK Jive/2707;

Q/ZZZCSSI ALQNZO C. WEATHER, OF CEICA ILLINOIS.

FRIGTIONAL-DRAFT as non RAILAD ca.

To 41 whom it mwy concern:

Be it known that LALoNzo C. MATHER, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Ch cago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Frictional-Draft Gear for Railroad Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates-to a draft gear and an automatic take up for the wear or setting of the springs in a frictional draft gear, and the objects of my invention are, first, to improve the efliciency of the draft gear; second, to automatically take up the lost motion between the parts of a frictional draft gear resulting from wear and setting of the springs; third, to make a simple, durable and effective device which can be substituted for coil springs inthe present draft gear, and other features to' become apparent from the description to follow.

Frictional draft gears as heretofore made have usually operated satisfactorily so long as there was no perceptible wear on the parts or no setting of the springs, but after the parts become worn and some lost motion was apparent between the parts the working of the same was very unsatisfactory and objectionable on account of excessive slack. By the use of my invention these objectionable features are eliminated and the parts necessarily ive better and longer service.

To escribe my invention so that others versed in the art, to which it pertains can -make and use the same I have illustrated it on the accompanying sheet of drawing forming a part of this specification, and in which I r Figure 1, is a fragmentaryplan view of a draft gear embodying my invention, and Figure 2, is a side'elevation of the same with the nearest side plate removed to expose the parts. a

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout both views.

To avoid changing any of the standard irnade parts of a draft gear I prefer to adapt my invention to the standard make of parts,

and l have accordingly shown the conventional side plates 3 which are secured by bolts or rivets to the car sills not shown. lhe coupler is shown'at 4 which is rigidly secured to a yoke 5 extendingabout the -follower plates 6, 7 and .8 in the usual way.

The carrier plates 9 are bolted to the under side of plates 3 to retain the follower plates 6, 7 and 3 in position, and the side plates 3 Specification of Letters Eatcnt.

Patented Aug. 23, 193%,

Application filed March 19, 1927.. Serial iii'o. 453,781. I

which the follower plates 6, 7 and 8 are arranged to strike in operation.

- Between the follower plates 6 and 7 I have shown In improved frictional device in plan, wh1 e I have shown it in section between the follower plates 7 and 8, and the same comprises the round centrally disposed bosses 11 made integral with the plates 6, 7

and 8, and having their outer ends madewedge shape as shown zit-12, necessarily the center plate 7 has a boss 11 on both sides. Properly arranged between the plates 6 and 7 and the plates 7 and 8 is. a pair of blocks 13, semi-circular in cross section, held in position within a coiled expanding spring 14 so that'their opposing beveled surfaces 15 are pressed against the beveled surfaces of the wedges 12. The ends of the spring 14 against the follower plates and the blocks 13 are made considerable shorter than the distance between the follower plates so that the said plates are free to move toward one another. The parts are so arranged that when two follower plates are moved towards each other the wedges 12 will force the blocks 13 further apart and enlarge the diameter of the coil of spring 14 which causes it to unwind and tighten in doing so. Thus it is clear that the spring 14 acts are provided with the usual stops 10 against against the follower plates directly by ex- I panding and also through the blocks 13 and wedges 12 by coiling about blocks 13.

It will be noted that as the wedges 12 and beveled surfaces 15 of blocks 13 become worn the tendency of the coiled spring 14 to cell tighter about blocks 13 will take up all the wear and the parts will thus be automatically held in proper working condition at all times. In operation a push on theconpler 4 will tend to move the follower plates 6 and 7 to the right as viewed in the drawing and of course move the wedges 12 further in between the blocks 13 and tend to enlarge the coils of springs 14. It will be understood I Having thus fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:-

The combination in a friction draft device of a pair of oppositely disposed followers, 21 pair of wedges one of which is associated with each of said followers, a pair of laterally movable oppositely positioned wedge blocks each having oppositel directed wedge faces engaging the Wedge f ac follower Wedges, and a coil spring expanding between the opposing faces of the foles of the ALONZO o. MATHER.

Witnesses RIQHARD J. J ACKER, WILLIAM F, KAN-ms. 

